What Is In Your Eye?

By: Jason Marcle

We all have obstructions in our line of sight. We all see things differently. The mindset we have plays a huge role in how we see others and how we see certain situations. I want to start off with a story.

Growing up there was a small outbuilding beside my parent’s house. It was my dad’s workshop. He was given a lot of scrap materials and he and my grandfather built that building. He worked out of that building for many years building different wood projects. In front of that building sat an old metal wagon wheel that at one time served as our mailbox stand before it was damaged by a road grader scraping the snow off of the road one winter. Also in front of the building was my great grandfather’s dinner bell. I can remember the first time my dad let me use his scroll saw in that building. I cut out a sword from a piece of plywood. I thought that was so cool. The old building had been used for storage for several years as my father got a larger building to work out of when I was a teenager. The building had fiberglass siding, so it looked rustic. After my parents passed, we cleaned out the small building. The floor was not in decent shape anymore and it was showing its age, but I wanted to keep that old building for the memories. It was something that both my dad and grandfather built with their own hands. My uncle that lives across the street came over one day as we were cleaning out the buildings and said that we needed to tear that old building down and have it hauled off. He told us that by doing so, it would improve the look of the property and that we would have a beautiful view from our back porch. I have never seen the view because that building had been there for as long as I remember. That building had obstructed that beautiful view my entire life. I had never seen the view my uncle was referring to. After some thought, I decided to have the building torn down and hauled off since the floor and foundation was no longer stable.

                     Old VIew With Building Blocking VIew

New Clear View of The Pasture

I had to trust my Uncle that there was a beautiful view behind that old building. I couldn’t see it because my view was obstructed.  Now we have a beautiful view that I have never seen before.

I relate this story to my mental health. When I am in a dark place, my view is obstucted. I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.  During my turmoil, I only see the negative. When I get in this mindset, I call it going into the abyss.  The abyss is a place I visit in my head no matter how hard I try not to. It is a scary place. A place where positivity doesn’t exist due to the blinding fog of negativity. I have to fight my way back to reality anytime I visit the abyss. We all have that door we don’t want to open in our heads. My problem is that the door is never fully shut. It is always cracked open a little.  

In today’s world there are a lot of things out there constantly obstructing our view.  Television, radio, cellphones, gagets, social media platforms, you get the picture. These items can obstruct our view by feeding us negative thoughts.  Have you watched the news lately? Do you see a lot of positive reports with happy endings on the news? Are you too busy watching your social media platforms to see how many people liked your last post? Are you listening to music that is degrading women, singing about drinking on the backroads and using every cuss word there is? Are you too busy texting on your phone or talking on your cellphone while your kids are waiting on you to play with them? All of these are obstructing our view of happiness.

We all have an idea in our head about what happiness looks like. Where do we get that idea? Was it from that TV show last night about a couple madly in love with each other  and never have a single argument or disagreement?  I say all this to say, don’t let material things dictate what happiness looks like.

Sometimes we may be too busy finding things wrong with others instead of working on our own issues. It is easy to talk negative about someone to help make you look better. It is easy to make fun of a President while we have never been put in a position like that.  It is easy to judge that person on the side of the street begging for money saying “If I were them” or “they just don’t want to work”.  Have you stopped and spoken to any of these people? Have you offered them a job? These are obstructing your view.  Matthew 7:5 ESV says “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

This is how you see clearly. It says it right there in the Bible. That is a powerful verse that I forget about. All of these negative things I have spoken about above will send me into the abyss. All I have to do to prevent that trip is to take the log out of my own eye first. I have a false sense of happiness. When things do not play out like I anticipate, I get upset. I set expectations high and sometimes they are so high I cannot even meet them. Then I want to get angry or upset when the expectation is not met.  Those expectations are blocking my view of a peaceful life.

There is another example in John Chapter 8 when a woman was caught in adultery. If a woman committed adultery under the law of Moses, she would normally be stoned to death. I love what Jesus says in verse 8 “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” After Jesus said this to the Pharisees, they all left and not one threw a stone at her. The only person there that could throw a stone at her was Jesus but instead, he forgave her and told her to sin no more.

Next time you fall into your abyss or go through that dark door, remember that it is just temporary, and something is blocking your view. Get out your journal, sit down and write down a personal inventory so you can tear down whatever is blocking your view. It is hard for me to figure out what exactly is blocking my view, but I know I need to tear it down to see the whole picture. I need to examine myself first before throwing rocks at someone else. I need to remove the stick out of my eye before I try to remove a speck from yours.

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